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Getting Started

This guide walks you through running your first backtest. It takes about 5 minutes.

Step 1: Open the Web Interface

Navigate to https://aurex.manikolbe.com in your browser. You'll see the home page with a health status indicator and links to the main features.

Step 2: Connect Your Broker

AurexTrade needs a broker connection to fetch market data. You'll connect a free OANDA demo account — no real money involved. This is a one-time setup that takes a couple of minutes.

2a. Create a free OANDA demo account

If you don't already have one, open a free demo account. It uses virtual money so there's zero financial risk.

Choose the v20 account type

When creating your demo account, OANDA offers several account types. Select v20.

2b. Get your API Token

Go to OANDA Hub → Personal Access Token and generate a token. This is what authorises AurexTrade to fetch data on your behalf. Copy it somewhere safe — you'll paste it in the next step.

2c. Get your Account ID

Go to OANDA Hub → Accounts and copy your Primary account number. It looks like 101-004-XXXXXXXX-001.

2d. Save credentials in AurexTrade

  1. Click Settings in the top menu
  2. On the Broker tab, paste your credentials:
    • Account ID — the number you copied in step 2c
    • API Token — the token you generated in step 2b
    • Server — select "Practice"
  3. Click Save Credentials
  4. (Optional) Click Test Connection to verify everything works

One-time setup

You only need to do this once. Your credentials are encrypted before storage and never displayed back — only you can use them.

Step 3: Go to Backtest

Click Strategy Testing in the top menu, then select Backtest.

Step 4: Run Your First Test

The backtest page has a form with several fields. For your first run, you only need to do one thing:

  1. Leave all defaults as they are — they're set to sensible starting values
  2. Click Run Backtest

That's it. The system will test the SMA Crossover strategy against historical gold price data and show you the results.

First run takes a little longer

The first time you run a backtest, AurexTrade downloads historical data from OANDA. You'll see a "Downloading..." status — this typically takes 10–30 seconds depending on the date range. Subsequent runs reuse the cached data and are much faster.

What just happened?

The system replayed past gold prices through a trading strategy to see what would have happened if you had followed its signals. No real money was involved.

Step 5: Read Your Results

After a few seconds, you'll see:

  • A metrics table — key numbers that tell you how the strategy performed
  • An equity curve — a chart showing how your account balance changed over time

The most important numbers to look at first:

Metric What it tells you
Total P&L Did the strategy make or lose money overall?
Win Rate What percentage of trades were profitable?
Max Drawdown What was the worst losing streak?

For detailed explanations of all metrics, see Understanding Results.

What to Do Next

Once you've run a single backtest, the next steps are:

Try Different Settings

Go back to the form and change some parameters. For example, with SMA Crossover:

  • Try a shorter Short Window (e.g., 5) — makes the strategy react faster
  • Try a longer Long Window (e.g., 50) — makes it more cautious

Run a Parameter Sweep

Instead of testing one setting at a time, use the Sweep page to test hundreds of combinations automatically. The system will rank them and show you which settings performed best.

Validate with Walk-Forward

Found settings you like? Use the Walk-Forward page to check whether those settings only worked in the past (overfitting) or are genuinely robust.

The 3-Step Workflow

The recommended workflow is:

1. Backtest  →  2. Sweep  →  3. Walk-Forward
   (sanity        (find         (prove it's
    check)         best)         not luck)

Each step builds on the previous one:

  1. Backtest confirms the strategy can work at all
  2. Sweep finds the best parameter combination
  3. Walk-Forward proves the best settings aren't just a lucky fit to past data

Don't skip Walk-Forward

It's tempting to take the best sweep result and start trading immediately. But the best settings in a sweep are often overfit — they worked perfectly on that specific data but will fail on new data. Walk-Forward catches this.

Saving Your Defaults

Once you've found settings you like, you can save them so all backtest forms pre-fill automatically on your next visit.

  1. Go to Settings in the top menu
  2. Under Strategy Defaults, pick a strategy, adjust the parameters, and click Save Strategy Defaults
  3. Under Risk & Cost Defaults, set your preferred risk/cost values and click Save Risk Defaults

Next time you open any backtest form (Backtest, Sweep, or Walk-Forward), your saved parameters will be pre-filled.

Reset to Defaults

Made a mess of the settings? Click Reset to Defaults to restore the original application defaults instantly.